Advice for a College Aspie with PDA

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Hello,

I've been diagnosed with Asperger's and PDA since the beginning of this year, and have also begun college, aiming for my BTech in Mechatronics Engineering. I'm on my first break of the semester, and am already finding myself struggling to keep to the routines and have even thought about bailing on the whole idea of college. My doctor has told me its because of the PDA and is busy organizing with the college that I only go in for 4 days per week in order to minimize the anxiety and stress, so that I don't bail on the course. I'm finding it difficult to get myself to do my tasks, and feel anxiety building just at the thought of having to do the assignments or tasks. The thought of going back to college next week is also resulting in a build-up of anxiety, and the closer I get the more anxious I'm becoming.

On top of that I have my mid-terms next week, and I am really struggling to sit down and study. This is only adding to the anxiety because I know that I must study, but then something else peaks my interest and I want to do that instead, and I find it hard to keep my attention where it needs to be. When I follow my curiosity, time whizzes past and before I know it, it's time to go to bed and I haven't even touched on my study material. When I do manage to sit down and study, I get through maybe one or two questions of a past question paper before I'm bored and finding myself distracted by other things. As a result I have only done 2 questions for mechanics over my two week break, and that's only 1 subject out of 5.

What steps can I put in place to help me manage so that I can do what I need to do in order to get through this course? What coping strategies do you use with both Asperger's and PDA, that I could try so that I can manage my day-to-day life? How intricate are your routines? Are they detailed to the minute, or broad and flexible? Finally if you have PDA how do you get yourself to stick to your routine?

ProfessorOptics

Are you officially diagnosed?

If you are, I would assume that you could request accommodations with the "disabilities office" or whatever.

I think South Africa is probably on board with this sort of thing.

Call the "disabilities office."

I am officially diagnosed, yes. I'm already working with everyone i can at my college, as well as with my doctor and his team who have all been wonderful in helping me so far. What i'm looking for here, is just some tips, or advice on what i can do in my home setting so that i can minimize the anxiety and manage the PDA and Asperger's. I'm also interested in hearing what others with similar challenges have done to help them cope at home and with school/college life, because I would like to learn how i could possibly manage with everything.

I would say focus on one thing at a time, then take a break, then focus on another aspect.

Take "reward" breaks and concentrate on what gives you pleasure, but create a definite time limit.

I used to have problems with procrastination and focus when I was in higher education.

I also followed all syllabi closely. Don't let yourself get behind.

Brilliant! Thanks for the advice. With routines, did and do you follow the same routine everyday? i.e. did you have time allocated towards a specific task, and was that time the same everyday, or did you just have a daily to do list that you followed and made sure you completed before going to bed? How structured, or strict, and detailed was your routine?

To be honest, I only really followed a strict schedule whenever a major assignment was due. Many times, I went beyond the schedule I set out for myself, because of previous procrastination.

The way I would get out of procrastination was to do what I mentioned previously. Do one thing at a time, rest up (pursuing one of my special interests), then doing another thing.

I pulled a few "all-nighters" in my time. But it was okay. That didn't happen all that often.

In general, I learned quickly that I had to follow what was said in the syllabus; otherwise I would fall behind. I was very inflexible when it came to following the syllabus, doing the assignments set out for that week. I missed very few class sessions.

Don't listen to the people who say you don't have to attend class that often. Attending class is of the utmost importance. Especially since you see how the professor operates.

I worked full-time while I went to school part or 3/4's time. I was fortunate that I had a long commute--so I could study on the train. I was also fortunate that I had a considerable fund of background knowledge pertaining to certain things, since I went back to school as a 36-year-old, rather than an 18-year-old.